DLT - The Recipe is Set to Spread Black Joy Across London This Summer, We Sat Down With The Founders To Discuss The Upcoming Event & More [Interview]

DLT (aka Days Like This) is one of London’s hottest events and has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2016. Founded by Bosun Apata, Michael Amusan (MK), Anthony Iban and Ife Awosika, the day party initially began as a regular bottomless brunch event with food and drink but has now evolved into an all-year-round go-to event, there’s no wonder DLT seem to find their events sell out every time. The founders take pride in creating a safe and inclusive environment, where they can cater to audience feedback, and be a platform for the most talented DJs in London, all while embracing everything that is black joy and culture.

We sat down with co-founders MK and Ife as they discussed the success of DLT over the last few years, the future of the brand, being pioneers in the London events scene and the excitement around their unmissable upcoming day out The Recipe, which has R’n’B powerhouse and Grammy-award winner Jazmine Sullivan headline on July 6th at Gunnersbury Park. The lineup so far also includes acts such as Sir, Alex Isley, Destin Conrad and due to popular demand London songstress Shae Universe.

DLT - The Recipe can be described as a first-of-its-kind transcendental experience that will appeal to a wide variety of people including music lovers, festival goers, DLT regulars and those who want to expose themselves to something brand new, what makes this day even more special is the fact that it’s all-inclusive, with one purchase you’ll experience bottomless drinks and food, witness star-studded performances, eat from some of the most delicious food vendors in London including Santa Nata, Sweet Dee's Jerk, Breddos Tacos, Cecconi’s Pizza Bar and Dirty Burger. Curated by a team that is so intentional with their brand and consistently making moves to create a timeless vibe in London and beyond, DLT has outdone themselves with this one, so if you haven’t been to one of their events just yet, then securing your ticket for The Recipe would be the perfect introduction, as it’s the one day out this summer you won’t want to miss out on. 

Firstly DLT has come a long way since its launch in 2016, did you ever think it would expand to this scale?

MK: The quick answer is no, DLT is an event and day party that started off in Old Kent Road in Peckham with 200-300 people attending at a time, it has grown and taken off all on its own. For a while the other co-founders lived out in New York, where we witnessed the early inception of the infamous Everyday People event, we used to go to other bottomless brunches like this and just enjoy! Going to all these different bottomless brunches inspired the early days of DLT, where it was a full-on bottomless brunch, a vendor would come in, providing food, we’d have mimosas or whatever it was at the time and then it would transition into a day party after that, this is a format will follow for at least two years, we still kind of dabble in it now and again, but that's how we kind of like built ourselves up as a brunch with food, drink and partying. 

Because of what we experienced in New York, it truly helped us to grow, try different things and work with different artists. In terms of global reach, we had already reached Ibiza, Mykonos, Nigeria and Ghana, the launch of DLT Malta in 2022 was where we could curate a 4-day event party experience with acts like Wizkid and Kaytranada, who received a great reception, and then we did it last year and we’re doing it again. This year we just launched this new festival as well, so it’s kind of been this rolling ball of evaluation and ideas.

What inspired the launch of DLT? (Do you think something was missing in the day/nightlife scene) 

MK: Yeah, I mean from my perspective, coming back from New York, where it was very much like work hard, play hard culture, I felt like the play hard was missing in London. There was nothing for me anyway and for our community to go to, there was no real gathering spot, there were so many times when I’d think to myself where do I go to meet like-minded young black working professionals, even if you’re not a professional, you’re just young and black in London and you just want to party. 

IFE: Yeah I think that we are very humble in our approach to things, we don't give ourselves enough credit, but when we talk about pioneers we could claim that title with the black party space and within a black demographic. I know we didn’t come up with the idea of a bottomless brunch, but we’ve owned our space and been very patient with our approach to things, we could’ve branched out abroad a lot sooner but we wanted to do things in a particular manner with our DLT vibe and flavour to follow through. We can say that with our original approach and concept and where we are today, we’ve definitely opened the doors to other black music events and other like-minded people. 

There are so many brunch events these days, what makes the DLT experience unique? How does it feel to be one of London’s biggest go-to events? 

IFE: I would say it’s the combination of being free and being yourself, before so many of our events we’ll get DM’s asking what’s the dress code and our answer is there isn’t one just come as yourself, good vibes, good energy and a smile. One of the other things that makes us unique is the combination of food, music, drinks and the fact that it all happens during the day, still till this day we’ve remained as a day party, minus New Year's Eve which is a bit of an anomaly, where we started (which is during the day) is where we remain, the formula has stayed the same, you can have a good time during the day, meet people, connect and still be home by midnight if you want to. I think we’ve contributed to that concept of positive nightlife culture, there’s never any trouble at our events, and you can enjoy yourself and meet new people, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. 

MK: I would say that we have become a gateway for so many of the other brunch/nightlife brands in London, we’ve opened so many doors in terms of venues and we’ve seen people follow in those doors, which for us is so nice to see, the more the merrier, when we were growing up there were barely any options, now there’s plenty of options out there, despite our brand’s growth it’s always nice to support ours peers too. 

Okay so The Recipe is solely focused on R’n’B, which is any real music lover's dream… this one is truly for the earners, talk us through the process as it’s so different to anything you’ve done before...

MK: So the concept of The Recipe has always been a concept and conversation amongst us in terms of should we or shouldn’t we do a festival? Even with DLT Malta it’s not your typical festival,it has a lineup but that’s not really what it’s about,It's about the parties, the community and the vibe of being on an island, free for four days, enjoying yourself and the acts we carefully select.

Funnily enough, the majority of people in our team don't enjoy festivals, we're not festival goers. So when we thought of a festival concept we wanted to curate something we’d like to attend. The lineup is a great aspect of it and we'll talk about how we got Jazmine Sullivan a little later, but I think there's just going to be so much to that day that people don't know, but there’s going to be a beauty tent where you can do your makeup on the day, touch up your hair, that kind of thing, there’ll be several tents, the all-inclusive food and drink aspect as well. You literally come in and everything's paid for, you go to any vendor, you want to try any kind of food, it's like the taste of London meets your favourite festival, but we don’t even want it to just be a festival we want it to be a full experience. On top of that, it’s for the lovers, it’s lovers' season, R’n’B is on top right now and who better to headline DLT’s first-ever festival experience than THE Jazmine Sullivan? Funnily enough, we were thinking about Jazmine Sullivan for last year’s DLT Malta, but it just didn’t work out. But then we thought okay, we’re going to do a festival, who else would be better than Jazmine Sullivan, especially after the fact that it’s been ten years of Jasmine not being in the UK, the energy just aligned. 

IFE: It’s probably not something we’ve talked about enough, but everyone should take this opportunity with DLT - The Recipe to be on the right side of history, because it is something that is going to mature like fine wine, they’ll be able to wow I went to a festival in London, relatively close to where I live, walked in and didn’t need to spend another penny, drinks, food, got to experience things like a beauty tent and rides. The ultimate cherry on top will of course be the acts like Jazmine, Destin Conrad, Alex Isley, Sir and so many more. We’ve waited a long time to curate an event like this, DLT - The Recipe is the pinnacle of our events so far, and this was the right moment to launch it. 

MK: Just to add on the food aspect of things we have some cool, top-tier food vendors on the day, the line-up for that will be dropping very soon. This is a premium offering with a premium experience, it’s going to be an experience where people are going to say ‘Wow you didn’t go to The Recipe, you missed out”. The slogan for the day will be, “The perfect day out”. We even held back on the R&B for DLT:Malta this year because we’re going to give it to our audience in July at The Recipe. We’re just going to party in Malta and chill out and have a great vibe in London.

You’ve worked with an array of brands and events including TikTok, Soho House and BET UK, what would be your dream collaboration?

MK: Some conversations are happening that I can't reveal at the moment because of confidential reasons, but we will be making some announcements in due course about the brands that will be supporting us on The Recipe to help amplify the experience, which will start to amplify the goal that we have in mind. 

IFE: We are constantly moving forward and evolving, we are going to be working with the biggest brands possible but we will keep people posted.

DLT has landed in Dublin, Malta, Toronto, New York and more. What does the future hold for DLT? Where to next? 

MK: We have plans to launch something in Dubai at the end of the year, Stockholm is also on the list, and DLT is all about going to places where there’s an appetite for bringing together culture, community and music, so that’s what we try and do.

IFE: We told people at the beginning of the year to pack their bags, but I don’t think they were listening. We gave people little passport wallets at the end of the year and we meant it. We’re travelling all over. 

In terms of the whole DLT experience, is there anything else that you would like to add?

MK: Honestly just watch this space, it’s growing, and developing and there’s just so much more that we can’t wait to share with you guys. We’re speaking to more brands and more people who want to get involved, don’t forget DLT Malta, that’s going to be sick this year especially as we have two weekends in the Malta weekender, we'll be adding more to that lineup too so keep an eye out for that. It’s going to be a great summer as we’ve already kicked off with our road to Malta events, the main event in Malta and back to London for The Recipe. 

Do you guys find it easier to collaborate because you’re already friends?

IFE: Definitely, I always use the example that a team is as cohesive as being on a football team like everyone has a certain position and we all individually hold that area down. We all know what we’re good at and we all have our strengths, so there’s never really much of a crossover and we are still in our respective lanes and I think that’s why we work so well. If I could give any advice to another brand I would say don’t try and do everything, sometimes it’s good to bring in the experts where it’s needed and let people own their zone.

Lastly, what one word or phrase would you use to describe DLT?

IFE: Black Joy… we don’t discriminate against anyone, we’re a safe space for everyone but we initially started in this space where we were not given a fair chance, it felt like we were trying our absolute hardest and had to almost beg certain venues and brands to collaborate with us. DLT is just accelerating that Black Joy continuously, we always want to just come with a smile on people's faces, have that spirit and that energy and just embrace that this is our space together because we're celebrating Black Joy all year round at every opportunity.

Tickets on sale here:

https://www.therecipefest.co.uk/